In the lead up to what will be a much-awaited UEFA European Championship, The Cult of Calcio will be offering a look into the past, turning over the extraordinary moments that have been a part of one of the greatest events in international sport. Today, we begin with a look at the very beginning.
Although 1960 was the year we were introduced to a tournament that has given us so much, the originating notion had come over two decades before. Henri Delaunay, the secretary of the French Football Federation, first came up with the idea of a continental competition in 1927. It took a long while for the Delaunay’s proposition to gain traction and it was only after the creation of UEFA in 1954 that the idea was taken seriously. Euro 1960 was almost unrecognizable to the format we enjoy today.
With the war in Vietnam raging, Euro 1960 could not escape the political turmoil the world was facing, with several superpowers deciding against entering. World Champions West Germany, Italy and even England, who had concerns over the ability to organize the qualification process, chose not to enter the inaugural event. With Spain, still under the dictatorship of General Franco, refusing to travel to the Soviet Union, which advocated the Second Spanish Republic, the tournament was facing difficulties before a ball was kicked…
Eventually, and perhaps fittingly, the tournament was staged in Delaunay’s home nation and featured four teams only. The 1960 European Nations Cup (as it was then known) gave international European football a canvas within which to display some of the greatest talents on the continent. And boy, was there talent! A hugely gifted USSR fielded a player still largely regarded as the most colossal shot-stopper the game has ever produced in Lev Yashin.
The Russian goalkeeper, heralded “the Impregnable Spider,” was a trendsetter. Along with his now famed flat cap, the goalkeeping dynamo was one of the most forward-thinking footballers the game has produced. In an era where goalkeepers rarely donned any form of protection Yashin used gloves and, perhaps even more impressively, his ability to affect the game has gone on to influence the style of play employed today by the likes of Manuel Neuer and Alisson Becker. In an interview with the BBC, goalkeeping great Gordon Banks gave his thoughts on Yashin:
“Lev Yashin was first-class, a real super goalkeeper. His positional play was excellent, but everything he did was top-class. He had outstanding agility for such a big guy, he was excellent. One of the best I’ve seen. He was the model for goalkeeping for the next 10 to 15 years, without a doubt.”
Lev Yashin’s ability to decide when to affect the game, in an era where most players in his position sat back and allowed matters to unfold, set him apart. Yashin brought calm and cool to a team that was otherwise very capable of exerting offensive dominance on the pitch, as they did in Marseille in a one-sided affair where they came out as 3-0 winners over Czechoslovakia in the first Semi-Final, courtesy of a brace from Valentin Ivanov and a solitary strike from Viktor Ponedelnik.
Game of The Tournament: Yugoslavia Fight Back To Send Hosts…Home
There were fireworks in the other Semi-Final that saw Yugoslavia pip the hosts. The Parc des Princes was gripped with excitement as 26,370 spectators arrived for the opening game. After an enthralling 90 minutes, the future of international football seemed a lot brighter than that of politics.
In a game that was always going to produce goals – France had cemented their place in the tournament with a 9-4 aggregate win against Austria; Yugoslavia had seen off Portugal with a commanding 6-3 scoreline – the Semi-Final seemed set to excite but, with the game approaching the halfway point at 1-1, few could have guessed at what was to come. Yugoslavia’s 11th-minute opener did not last a minute before Jean Vincent equalized. François Heutte gave the hosts a slender lead going into the break.
Soon after the restart Les Bleus, missing both Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine through injury and temporary retirement, took control through Maryan Wisnieski, only for Ante Žanetić to reduce the arrears immediately. Heutte’s second seemed to settle nerves, making it 4-2.
Then came some of the most magical five minutes of play witnessed at the international level. With pressure mounting, Tomislav Knež finally punched a hole in the French backline with 15 minutes of play left. Coach Albert Batteux’s men were visibly unsettled. Before they even had a chance to compose themselves a 4-3 advantage was a 5-4 deficit: Two goals in a minute from Dinamo Zagreb striker Dražan Jerković silenced the Parc des Princes. France were dumped out on home turf in what remains, to this day, the competition’s highest-scoring match.
A Hero Between the Sticks
This inaugural tournament would belong to one man. Still the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or, Lev Yashin led his side to glory against Yugoslavia at 2-1 in a final that gave the USSR and indeed Russia the only major trophy they boast to date. There would be other opportunities to come for an infinitely talented Yugoslav side but this edition would be sealed by a great who was just as much a character off the pitch as on it. We leave you with a gem from the man himself:
“What kind of a goalkeeper is the one who is not tormented by the goal he has allowed? He must be tormented! And if he is calm, that means the end. No matter what he had in the past, he has no future”
And the trick to his greatness, you ask?
“The trick is to smoke a cigarette to calm your nerves and then take a big swig of strong liquor to tone your muscles.”
Lev Yashin belongs to a bygone age of footballing hero’s, this previous quote perhaps underlines this, but his ability to think ahead of his peers has cemented his name in footballing history.
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